Review: The Favourite

It is nearing the end of the reign of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) as England is currently in the middle of a war with France. Due to her declining health and passive disinterest in governing, most of her duties are carried out by her court favourite, Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz). This arrangement is further complicated by the arrival of Sarah’s cousin Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) who slowly worms her way into the Queen’s favours. This causes the cousins to butt heads over who will be Anne’s favourite and ostensibly have unlimited access to the power that role entails.

Yargos Lanthimos has kind of blown up on the scene of auteur-driven surrealist works of film. If you do not recognise the name, 2015’s The Lobster and 2017’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer were brain spawns of his. While his name and reputation continue to grow, he has completely changed tack for his latest work. He isn’t penning the screenplay of his frequent collaborator Efthymis Filippou (he co-wrote Lobster and Deer, amongst many others). In fact, this is the first solo feature of his where Filippou hasn’t been credited for the screenplay. Bizarrely, rather than going towards the contemporary surrealist satire route, it’s a costume comedy-drama and a highly fictionalised recounting of a historical event. This is definitely a filmmaker testing the reach of his creative ambitions. I’m happy, then, to report that The Favourite is largely a success.

First off, I’ll just say what most people are praising it for; the acting is top notch from the three leads. All are reliable performers, but their talents are taken to the nth degree for The Favourite. Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are fiery and play off each other beautifully. Stone has a subtle sense of menace and conniving intelligence to how she plays it. She always underplays just how ahead of the game she is. Weisz is domineering and in control, and her unravelling at the hands of her usurper really pushes her. Also worth noting is Nicholas Hoult, who steals every scene he’s in with catty and well-delivered hilarity.

Olivia Colman as Queen Anne.

The absolute MVP here is Olivia Colman. Her depiction of Queen Anne is erratic and yet totally calculated. She has become a woman so selfish and insecure that she eggs on the competition between her two favourites for her own flattery. It would have been easy to make this almost pantomime-esque in its delivery. Colman, however, gives her enough pathos and genuinely unhinged mania that she ends up feeling a lot more human. If anything, the film is an absurdist commentary on just how detached and warped power can make you, especially with everyone around Anne playing to her every whim to avoid impropriety. This is absolutely one of the best performances of this year. The Academy will be as mad as old Queen Anne in this picture if they overlook Olivia Colman when awards season rolls around.

That isn’t to say that the only thing to praise here is the cast. Lanthimos’ direction is still on point, getting across his trademark sense of aloofness and detached humour from the situation. The production design is some of the best of the year. It really gets across that regal griminess of aristocratic England in the 18th Century. The cinematography is great, with some wonderful uses of a fisheye lens and symmetrical shots in particular. The score is sparsely used but works wonders when it’s there. All-in-all, this is the usual stellar work from Lanthimos production-wise; love or hate his work, his films are always professionally and expertly made.

The Favourite is probably the lesser of the three Lanthimos films for my personal taste. There’s something about his partnership with Filippou and the more contemporary elements that make his work pop more. But lesser Lanthimos is still a cut above most other filmmakers out there. This is strange, surprising, consistently hilarious, excellently performed, expertly produced and a stellar blast overall. This is all in spite of the rather weird note it ends on. If you get a chance, absolutely check it out, especially for Colman’s performance, but also for everything else weird and wonderful it has to offer.

Daniel writes about movies. A lot. Maybe too much, perhaps, but he has not been stopped. Yet...His more specified interests would be in comic book, and maybe something not related to comic books once he thinks about it, he swears. Is a general fountain of incredibly useless knowledge, but don't think he'd be a surefire in a table quiz.